Tag: Fatherr faber

1 July
The Feast and the Month
of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Epistle to the Hebrews  9,11-15

11 But Christ, being come an high Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hand, that is, not of this creation:  12 Neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption.  13 For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer, being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh:  14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?  15 And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Holy Gospel according to Saint John  19,30-35

30 Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.  31 Then the Jews (because it was the parasceve), that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day (for that was a great sabbath day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken: and that they might be taken away.  32 The soldiers therefore came: and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him.  33 But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  34 But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side: and immediately there came out blood and water.  35 And he that saw it hath given testimony: and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true: that you also may believe.

Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274)

Franciscan, Doctor of the Church

The Mystical Vine

They have not only pierced his hands and his feet but his side as well, and have opened up the inmost part of his most holy heart, already wounded by the lance of love. Oh how good and how pleasant it is to dwell in this heart! O my good Jesus, your heart is a true treasure, a pearl of great price which we found when we dug in the field of your body (cf Mt 13,44-45). Would anyone toss it aside? Rather will I give all I have in exchange, I will give up all my thoughts and desires to buy it, tossing all my preoccupations into the heart of my Lord Jesus and, undoubtedly, that heart will sustain me.

In his book, The Precious Blood, Father Frederick William Faber CO (1814-1863), calls St Paul ,the Doctor of the Precious Blood owing to his evident fondness of preaching on Ithis subject in his Epistles (Romans 3:25; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12 et al).

He recounts that the lives of the Saints are replete with devotion to the Precious Blood making special mention of St John Chrysostom, St Augustine, St Gertrude and  St Catherine of Siena, the last whom he considered the Prophetess of the Precious Blood for putting emphasis on It as the solution to the ills of her times.

Constant Prayer
to the Precious Blood of Jesus
By St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Precious Blood,
Ocean of Divine Mercy,
Flow upon us!
Precious Blood,
Most Pure Offering,
Procure us every grace!
Precious Blood,
Hope and Refuge of sinners,
Atone for us!
Precious Blood,
Delight of holy souls,
Draw us!
Amen

Father Faber also remarks that the Precious Blood makes us appreciate more, Christ’s redemption of mankind, His sacrifice and Passion. It makes us comprehend too, the beautiful doctrine and the august realities of the Blessed Sacrament, as we kneel in front of the Tabernacle, in humble adoration.

Over time, the Church gave Her blessing to the devotion by approving societies like the Missionaries of the Precious Blood; enriching confraternities like that of St Nicholas in Carcere, in Rome and that of the London Oratory; attaching Indulgences to prayers and Scapulars in honour of the Precious Blood and instituting commemorative Feasts of the Precious Blood, Friday after the fourth Sunday in Lent and, since Pius IX, the first Sunday of July. St Pius X assigned the date of 1 July to this Feast.